Draft Proposal for a Diversity Initiative

Sept. 25, 2007

Background

In the 1960s, 70s and 80s the City Democratic Party included a number of African- Americans who were actively involved in the party, often in leadership roles. Since that time, these numbers have dwindled. Several theories have been offered to explain this trend. The bottom line is, fewer and fewer African-Americans are involved in our party, we don’t know why this has occurred, and we feel it’s very important to address the issue, soon.

Goals

The goals of this initiative will be:

1. To learn why we have lost much of the racial diversity in our party, and
2. To recommend short-term and long-term actions to greatly increase the diversity in our party.

Recommended Approach

1. Announce this initiative at the September party picnic, seek interested volunteers.
2. Discuss the initiative in depth at the Sep. 25 City Committee meeting: seek approval to move forward with this approach, get input on possible members of a diversity task force.
3. By early October: identify one-two people to lead a diversity task force. The task force will have the two-part mission stated under “Goals,” above. Work with the task force leader(s) to identify and invite other people to join it.
4. By mid-late October: convene the task force, explain the need and desire for this initiative, ask it to report its findings concerning the first goal within 4 months, and its recommended actions within 7 months.
5. By May, 2008, receive the task force’s report, discuss its recommendations, and start acting on them.